# I. Introduction he uplift of new Englishes in Asian region (especially in India and Bangladesh) has been accompanied by innumerable deviations from native norms at the level of grammar and pronunciation. In the wake of the world wide communicative approaches to English language teaching-learning program, many learners in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) situations give priority to meaning over accuracy of language forms or expressions. Today a good many English teachers and instructors are teaching their students to communicate spontaneously, fluently and effectively in language teaching brushing aside the agelong tradition of teaching hard and fast rules of grammar, which was once pivotal of their pedagogical activities. For them, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) means to teach language by attending to functional rather than the structural features of language. Nevertheless, according to Littlewood (1981) "One of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic to functional as well as structural aspects of language." (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2002). But it is important that with the rise of "communicative competence", one needs to pay heed to accuracy of sounds, forms and patterns of language since it entails communicating in accordance with the fundamental systems or rules of the target language that learners are supposed to master to the extent that they can fulfill the conditions of producing grammatically and phonologically correct sentences or utterances (quoted in Abi Samra, 2003). Hence the cautious learners of English even in the context of CLT ought to do away with errors they are likely to commit very often with a view to attain accuracy in speaking as well as writing. However, the focus in this paper is only on the phonological and grammatical errors committed by the first year undergraduates in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University in writing and speaking. a) The Situation of English in Bangladesh With the first growth and amazing mounting demand of English as an international language of communications, presently the necessity of attaining communicative competence in English for the students of Bangladesh has become almost obligatory. Realizing the gravity of this fact, our educationalist and expertise in English language have introduced English as one of the compulsory subjects for the students in the system of our public education. In our country, every year a large number of students are passing in S.S.C, H.S.C. and Degree examination being qualified in English language. Unfortunately, these students though are certified in English cannot communicate in English effectively rather committing common errors. As a language is a living phenomenon and as it is always in a state of flux, ever since its birth English language has undergone a number of changes. The English of Chaucer and the English of our time are different from each other in many ways. Even, there are many varieties of English among the English speaking countries. As an intrinsic complex task it is one of the most different abilities to acquire accuracy and fluency in spoken English. Speaking varies between native speakers (NS) who think and speak in the language used and non-native speakers (NNS) who think in their own native language. Evidently, learning English as a second or foreign language is not at all an easy task as it is an artificial process. Because, while speaking, NNS have in general, to think about all those rules they need to apply, rules that NS are supposed to have internalized. Therefore, it requires particular efforts on the part of the learners from the very beginning of their acquiring the target language (TL). Again, while learning second or foreign language the habit of one's native language often interferes. This is the reason why Bengali learners are very much liable in making errors in spoken and written English. Apart from that, as a conscious process in learning second language motivation and exposures to the TL on the part of the learners are two vital facts. But, in our country most of the learners of English lack in motivation and exposure from the very beginning of the learning English. Presently, it is widely agreed that the target language is a system of rules that the learners has to acquire, and that while acquiring a language committing errors are a natural and unavoidable part of this process (Doff, 1988). So students need not undergo feelings of guilt or inadequacy when they perceive committing errors. Even in many cases, committing errors or mistakes do not induce any kind of shame or guilty feeling in them when such inefficiency comes to the forefront. Although these students have been studying English all their lives as one of the compulsory subjects, their errors are frequent and therefore worth paying much attention. The reason is a great many teachers in our country are not very serious about practicing; detesting and correcting errors in their spoken and written English. As a result, most of the learners fail to speak and write in English properly. Besides, most of the school teachers are not well trained to prepare an effective lesson plan and to teach English. In fact, the situation of learning and teaching of four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) is not satisfactory in Bangladesh because teaching technique in our country emphasizes only on reading and writing but ignores and listening both in teaching and testing. Even, our teachers of secondary level students are not aware of the importance of correct pronunciation though a few teachers being expert in pronunciation do not show any interest it in class to guide his/her students. Besides, designed by the CLT program the selected secondary level textbooks are not so well organized or planned to teach students the theories of pronunciation. That is why; the students in Bangladesh might learn the grammatical rules in writing and reading form but cannot interact effectively because of failures in applying the proper rules and accents in spoken and written English. Being concerned with these problems, we have decided to conduct an Error Analysis (EA) in this paper, which is for Johanson (1975) "the best tool for describing and explaining errors" that ESL/EFL learners make while speaking English. # i. Error Analysis The assortment of error and their analysis is a common practice in a SL/FL teaching program in many countries across the world. Error Analysis is an effective device to analyze learners' errors in a scientific way. The aim of this method is to detect common errors and evolve a pertinent and effective teaching-learning and testing strategy and remedial necessary in certain marked out areas of the target language based on feedback obtained from the learners. The basic premise of this method is that there is a close correspondence between the identification of weakness and the success of method designed to eliminate them (Sherman, 1997). This method helps to pin down those specific areas of TL, which may require precise attention in the selection and preparation of syllabus and text book materials that they represent them. Therefore, Error analysis is a "multidimensional and multifaceted process", which implies much more than simply analyzing error in the spoken (or written) English of learning and counting them for frequency. # ii. Rationale Behind Choosing Error Analysis Error Analysis is a productive device not only at the starting point of learning a foreign language but also during the various phases of that language teaching and learning program. The "knotty" areas of a foreign language very often bewilder pupil to the extent that they feel discouraged to learn that language. Undertaking it from the beginning, teachers, course designers or textbook writers will be able to unravel those complicated areas of the target language that perplex pupil. In this case the procedure they follow is, of course, purely systematic. In Corder's (1967) article "The Significance of Learner's Errors" errors were described as While the teaching program itself goes on, Error Analysis performed on a limited scale can expose exquisitely both the "successes" and "failures" of the program. Then appropriate remedial measures can be looked for and implemented both on consolidate the successes and more significantly to eliminate the failures as the program steps forward. Thus, strong and effectual curative measures can be devised by Error Analysis (Corder, 1967, 161-170). Error Analysis is more important in the field of language learning also because it ultimately benefits the learners. In fact, errors may be considered as the founts of information that are significant to ascertain what specific tactics learners are following in picking up the TL. They are also enormously helpful to assess learners' output. Once teachers or instructors come to know about the struggle of learners to learn the target language (TL), they try to come up with useful solutions and suggestions to help them. A study of the various kinds of errors made by TL learners would guide teachers not only to identify program and materials are required. Therefore, in addition to helping ESL/EFL teachers to find out and categorizing the errors through TL learners' output EA help them to interpret the learning strategies of (Interlanguage) learners. It also provides a guide line to detect the level of linguistic and communicative competence of the learners along with their writing ability. It also helps to detect the level of linguistic and communicative competence of learners as well as is effective in identifying the influence of mother tongue on learners' TL while learning it. Apart from this, EA may be helpful to speculate the amount of interest learners reflect in acquiring the TL. Thus, EA has been beneficial in many ways in the domain of language teaching (Duskova, 1969, p. 11-36). This is why we have undertaken Error Analysis in this paper. With the aid of this tool, we will try to trace the common errors especially errors in accents, articles, prepositions and auxiliaries committed by the secondary level Bengali students in spoken English. We believe that EA will provide us ample scopes to locate the sources and remedies of those errors in the spoken English of the learners in the perspective of our country. # b) Objective(s) of the Study It is indeed a matter of regret that serious efforts have been made by the Government and educationists for improving the state of affairs of English language teaching for the first few decades in Bangladesh, a bad situation is still found to exist in the achievement of English among the students of all levels, especially among the university level students. Therefore, it becomes imperative to identify the level of achievement by the students in written and spoken English. The objectives of this paper are to make an attempt: 1. To identify the fossilized forms and accents in written and spoken English. 2. To explore and uncover the reasons overlooking teaching correct pronunciation of SL/FL in Bangladeshi context. 3. To identify some frequent grammatical errors especially errors in articles, prepositions and auxiliaries in spoken English committed by the first year undergraduates in the department of English at JU through the aid of Error Analysis (EA). 4. To use EA in detecting, describing, categorizing, and diagnosing committed errors in spoken English. 5. To look for remedial measures in the marked out areas of the target language. 6. To recommend some possible error corrections and feedback techniques for learners as well as teachers in the class. II. Chapter Two: Error Analysis and its Areas a) Error Analysis Error signifies the deviation from a selected norm or set of norms. In case of ESL (English as a Second Language) errors are considered as being the result of the persistence of existing mother tongue habits in the new language. Though error occurs in both receptive and productive activity, it is most readily noticed in speech and writing. The examination of the errors committed by the L2 students in both spoken and written medium is called Error Analysis (EA). According to Corder (1971) "the study of error is part of the investigation of the process of language learning. In the respects it resembles methodologically the study of the acquisition of the mother tongue. It provides us with the picture of the linguistic development of a learner and may give indication as to the learning process" (p.26) As a branch of applied linguistics, EA demonstrate that learner errors were not because of the learner's native language but also they reflect some universal learning strategies, as a reaction to contrastive analysis theory, which considered language transfer as basic process of second language learning as what behaviorist suggested. On the other hand, EA deals with the learner's performance in terms of the cognitive processes they make use of in recognizing or coding the input they receive from the target language. Therefore, the primary focus of EA is on the evidence that the learners provide with an understanding of the underlying process of SLA (Second Language Acquisition). It was Pit Corder (1967) who for the first time recommended error analysis for ESL/EFL oriented pedagogical activities. In one of his articles he pinpoints the huge potential for applying new hypotheses about how language is learned in the native language of learners to the learning of their target language. At this point he remarks "Within this context the study of errors takes on a new importance and will I believe contribution to a verification or rejection of the new". In the same article Corder claims that learners' native language(L1) is different from their target language (TL) in respect of motivation rather than any other facts. He conveyed that like a child adult learners too will inevitably learn a second or foreign language if they are exposed to the desired language data. He also postulates that at least some of strategies adapted by learners of L2 are appreciably identical with those by which L1 acquired. Having focused on the process of SLA, Corder turns to error in order to explain its role in the target language learning process. He says that at the time of learning a mother tongue, no one expects that a child would generate only forms or expressions which according to adults are accurate or non-deviants. Actually adults interpret a child's inaccurate utterances as signals that it is in the process of acquiring language. It is very likely that erroneous forms would put forth the important evidences of its knowledge of its mother tongue at any point of its development. Different definitions of "error" have been developed from different stands in error analysis literature. Corder's definition of error can be said to be partly traced back to the Chomskian dichotomy between competence and performance. Where as a mistake is a random or non-systematic performance slip owing to memory lapse or physical state like fatigue or excitement and so on, an error is a systematic deviation made by learners who have not had a good command over the rules of the target language yet. Corder also added that errors are systematic and predictable; they can reflect learners' existing underlying knowledge of the target language development which he calls "transitional competence". Stvens (1969) theorized that, "errors should not be seen as mere problems to be overcome". Rather they should be taken as normal and inevitable features that signify the criteria that learners employ while acquiring the target language. He held that if one had examined a regular pattern of errors in the performances of all learners in a particular setting and if some of them had shown their progress through this pattern, one could have taken their errors to be proof of accomplishment in the target language learning rather than proof of failure. To Ellis (1991) it seems awkward to focus on "what learners get wrong than on what they get right". Still he says, "there are 'good reasons' for paying good attention to errors and they are as follows. First, there is a conspicuous feature of learner language, raising the importance of 'Why do learners make errors?' Second, it is useful for teachers to know what errors learners make. Third, it is possible that making errors may actually help the learners to learn when they self-correct the errors they make" (Ellis, 1991, p. 15). Finally, it is very reasonable to comment that, EA has made a substantial contribution to SLA research. And at the end it is clear that errors were not something to be avoided but were an inevitable feature of the learning process. # i. Error Analysis: Steps Now-a-days the analysis of learners' error has become a significant part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder. For error analysis research Corder has suggested the following steps: 1. Collection of a sample learner language 2. Identification of errors 3. Description of errors 4. Explanation of errors 5. Evaluation of errors. For the first step in the error analysis it is needed to decide what samples of learner language will be used for analysis and how to collect this samples. Once a corpus of learner language has been collected, the errors in the corpus have to be identified. It is also necessary to establish a procedure to recognize errors. The description of errors requires attention to the surface properties of the learners' written and utterance based on linguistic categories. This type is closely related to a traditional EA undertaken for pedagogic purposes, as the linguistic categories can be chosen to correspond closely to those found in structural syllabuses and language text books. After identifying and describing errors, the next step is to explain them which are concerned with the sources of the error that is accounting for why it is made. It involves an attempt to establish the process responsible for fossilizing L2 acquisition. The final step, error evaluation involves a consideration of the effect that errors have on the person(s) addressed either in terms of the addressee's comprehension of the learners' meaning or in terms of the addressee's affective response to the errors. In this way, the evaluation of learner error poses a number of problems. Thus, error evaluation can be influenced by the context in which the error occurs. The evaluations also vary from person to person depending on who made it, and where, when, how it is made. Finally, on the basis of analysis the evaluator gives some recommendation from his/her point of view so that the errors could be avoided. # ii. Categorization of Errors The result of error analysis can be used as an indicator of learning achievement and guidance of teaching. It can be used in the target language to predict the categories of errors which will be helpful not only developing teaching materials but also selecting authentic teaching methods in ESL/EFL context. According to Ellis, within the framework of EA, errors can be categorized according to psycholinguistic process (Ellis, 2001, p. 68-69) # into two types: a) Inter-lingual errors b) Intra-lingual errors Inter-lingual errors are those errors which can be ascribed to learners' native language influence that is also described as "Transfer Errors". The mother tongue interference occurs in the areas of Syntax, grammar, lexis and pronunciation. For example, under the influence of Bengali language, English learners produce errors like-He go, Four cat etc. On the other hand, intra-lingual errors are errors those are caused as a result of interference from within the target language itself. These errors are also termed as "Developmental Errors". The following examples will clarify this: I goed to school. He cutted the cake. Ellis (1985) again remarks that errors can be classified according to surface strategy. They are termed as follows (with examples)- ? Omission-I read ^ novel, He ^ eating chocolate. ? Addition-He does not goes, I did not loved ? Misinformation-They him. was ? Misordering-He is a watching TV. of mine These are the categories of error which can occur both in spoken and written English. very good friend. # III. Chapter Three: Literature Review English language is getting importance in the realm of communication all over the world including Bangladesh day by day as it has become the most common media of communication. It is the increasing importance of English that has been attracting researchers for years to discover that English adopted by various people all over the world has been deviated from the formed standard variety of English. It is because of its having been in contact with many other different languages where the grammar, vocabulary, and phonology influence the standard variety. Now, it is a matter of concern how far Bangladeshi second language learners are deviated from the Standard English which hampers their effective communication. It is agreed by many researchers that as second language learners Bengali speakers do not/ cannot acquire native-like proficiency in spoken and written English. It has various reasons. This chapter focuses on the various types of errors in spoken and written language found by distinguished researchers. A learner who learns a language must commit errors in written and in spoken English. It is considered in Behaviorist view of language learning that in second language learning committing errors is a kind of wrong response to the stimulus that should be corrected as soon as they are made. Otherwise learners would develop a bad habit. As Brooks (1960) commented, "like sin, error was to be avoided and its influence overcomes?" (Cited in Ellis, 1991, p.22). It is even a problem for the second language learners that they cannot correct their own errors by any means. Furthermore, the errors committed by the second language learners are typically different from the errors committed by the native language learners. These kinds of errors signify that the learners have not yet internalized the forms of the second language. This is the reason the errors of the second language learners are seen in a different way. George (1972) viewed learners' errors as 'unwanted forms' (Ellis, 1994, p. 47). Before, applied linguist S. Pit Corder of Edinburgh University used the term 'error' to refer to those features of the learner's utterances which differ from those of any native speaker (Corder, 1973, p. 260). In fact, in an early article Corder (1967) noted the significance of 'errors' as it "(1) provide the teacher with information about how much the learner had learnt, (2) provide the researcher with evidence of how language was learnt, and (3) served as device by which the learner discovered the rules of the target language" (Ellis, 1994, p. 48). The concept of error analysis (EA) emerges to study the errors committed by the L2 learners. It was Pit Corder (1967) who for the first time recommended EA for ESL/FL (English as a Second Language/Foreign Language) oriented pedagogical activities. In the article entitled "The Significance of Learners' Errors" he states that in language teaching "One effect has been perhaps to shift the emphasis away from a preoccupation with teaching towards study learning." It means that from this time onward learning process begun to get an upperhand over teaching process in language classroom. In that very paper, Corder pinpoints the huge potential for applying new hypothesis about how language is learned in the native language of learners to the learning of their target language. In this framework Behaviorist approach emerged Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) which was a way of "Interlingual Interferences" that is comparing the structures of the native language and the target language to ascertain the errors which EFL/ESL learners are likely to commit. Ellis (1994) postulates the underlying assumption of CAH is that "errors occurred primarily as a result of interferences when the learner transferred native language habit into the L2. Interference was believed to take place whenever the habits of the native language differed from those of the target language". It gives a way to EA to investigate learners' language through an appropriate methodology reveal errors that are deemed to be of "Intralingual Interferences" within the target language and help to trace back to the learner employing so called learning strategies. That is, a shift took place from the formerly applied Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) toward the occupation with Error Analysis (EA). In a paper titled "Error Analysis and Error Correction in the Classroom" (1995), Islam remarks that " Error and Correction are some key words that have initiated a lot of discussion in language teaching literature and the issues arising out of it are still unresolved." Here, he briefly discusses the role of error correction in the classroom. To strengthen his argument, he cites Ellis (1985, p 295) who views error analysis as a procedure used by both researchers and teachers to collect and account for errors and to classify them according to their hypothesized causes and evaluating their seriousness. In another place, he again refers to Ellis (1985) he says that the noteworthy role of error analysis lies in the fact that it is a useful device "in evaluating the status of errors from undesirability to that of guide to the inner workings of the language learning process." It is in fact with the development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) initially in Britain in the 1970s that the attitude of the linguists and teachers toward error began to change. The extent to which the concept of error and error analysis is fruitful in language teaching and learning may depend on the progress of the L2 learners. In an influential journal, an article entitled "The Contribution of Error Analysis to Second/Foreign Language (SL/FL) Learning and Teaching" a student of Islamic University (2003) argued that "in SL/FL learning and teaching error analysis can play the role of a momentous instrument that demonstrates learner's progress I his/her career, helps the teacher to modify and his/her methods, materials and techniques, and finally provides the researcher with evidence of how language is learned or acquired". The article puts light on the producers to identify, categorize and explain errors with correction as well as on the mechanism of error analysis. He cited mechanics of error analysis from Norrish (1983) who propounds two approaches for analyzing errors. One is "Pre-selected Category Approach" and other is "Let the errors Determine the Categories Approach". The first approach set up one's categories of errors based on a set of preconceptions about the learners' most common problems and the investigation goes on a certain circularity to sort out errors in terms of predetermined error types. The later approach is used to group the errors collected according to the particular areas of grammatical, semantic or phonological problem with the advantage of allowing the errors themselves to determine the categories chosen by the process of sorting and resorting. Researchers have demonstrated that English adopted by different people all over the world has been deviated from the so-called standard variety of English and committing errors in grammatical areas because of its being in contact with many other different languages. There is considerable evidence that SL/FL learners commit grammatical errors both in oral and formal communication. One of the recent researches in Journal of Language Studies involves the grammatical errors committed by the Malaysian students who enrolled in an English course for Social Purpose at Malaysian University. The study examined the grammatical accuracy in spoken English in simulated oral interactions among less proficient ESL learners in a Malaysian tertiary institution. The Error analysis of 126 oral interactions by 42 students showed that the five common grammar errors made by the learners are preposition, question, article, plural form of nouns, subject-verb agreement and tense. The error analysis revealed the frequency of preposition errors (161 instances or 20.67% of 779 errors) and Articles (82 errors or 10.53% of 779 errors) among the categories of grammatical errors made by the students in their oral communication. The results indicate that the students are uncertain of the correct usage of prepositions, articles etc. Thomas Eliott Berry, a Professor of English in West Chester State College, in his book The Most Common Mistakes in English Usage to serve as an analysis of errors most commonly committed in spoken and written English with the clear explanations to correct these errors. Prepared as a reference work it plays role as a guideline for me to identify which are currently being observed by the most competent writers and speakers as errors. In this way, it engages me in a fascinating study as an exciting challenge to identify errors in written and spoken English of the first year undergraduates. ND Turton and JB Heaton in their book Longman Dictionary of Common Errors (1987) gives a view of the common errors the students commit in writing English. In an article entitled "Does Pronunciation Matter?" Simo told about the emergence of English accompanied by innumerable deviations from its native norms at the levels of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. This article was eritten to get cautions about the fact that too much tolerance in the teaching/ learning of pronunciation in non-mother-tongue environments has a graeter effect on intelligibility, spelling, and literary understanding than is usually thought. As Simo stated, "of all the levels, pronunciation exhibits the highest number of such deviations. These speech deviants are also the most readily tolerated in many circles." (Kral, 1994, p 107). As there is continuity in teaching/ learning strategies, the suggestion is that following the students' progress, the teacher becomes able to carry on the studies in accordance with the learner needs to know what part of teaching strategy needs to be changed or reconstruct (Erdogan, 2005). That is, in EA errors tell the teacher how far towards the goal the learners have progressed and what remains for them to learn (Corder, 1967) There has been research on both spoken and written in each of these features in various languages of the world in relation to English. But as far as it has been noticed, no such research has ever been done on these features among the first year undergraduates in Bangladesh. At least not in the case of the use of prepositions, auxiliaries, articles and pronunciation that what are the common errors these ESL learners are making while interacting in English through writing and speaking. # IV. Chapter Four: Research Methodology a) Introduction It is a fact that a fruitful research work demands both library research and empirical survey. A researcher must employ appropriate methodology and instrument to achieve his/ her objectives. The main objective of this dissertation is to seek out the errors committed by the first year undergraduates in the department of English at Jahangirnagar University. Along with these, it also concerns to find out the causes of those errors and their probable solutions. This chapter brings to focus the method of data collection employed in this study. It also entails an elaborate account of the questionnaire design and construction of research instruments, the sampling plan of the empirical survey, and method of editing, processing and analyzing the collected data. # b) Purpose of Empirical Survey It has been said that this paper makes an attempt to find out the errors that the first year undergraduates in the mentioned department commonly make in both written and spoken English. Additionally it tries to examine the sources of those errors and their curative techniques. Although fluency is paramount in CLTA, there is no denying the fact that accuracy is indispensible to learning English as a second or foreign language. # c) Methodology of the Empirical Study In view of the nature and motive of this study, I have decided to follow the survey method for the empirical study. In fact survey method includes two techniques. In the instruments for students' questionnaire survey there are two sections. A brief account of the two sections is as follows: a) Section-01: Personal details It is a short section that presents the personal details of the respondents. The personal details include name, roll, age and permanent address of the students. b) Section-02: Students; response to the questions in the questionnaire This section includes ??.. questions with a view to extract information about the condition of spoken and written English in the first year undergraduates in the department of English at JU. The instrument for the students' interview is used for the empirical survey which is constructed following the objectives and necessity of the study. As one of the goals of this paper is to identify some errors and their sources in spoken and written English committed by the first year undergraduate students, the study seeks to investigate the proficiency level of those students. For construction of empirical instruments, several books such as Research Methodology in Language Teaching by David Nunan, Understanding Research in Second Language Learning by James Dean Brown, and Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques by C. R. Kothari have been consulted. In designing questions for the interview, certain factors like respondents' intelligibility and their command over English as a foreign language have been paid due attention. Students' interview focuses on 7 questions including some events, places, and some other topic to describe and a list of 48 words to investigate their pronunciation. ii. An Account of the Instruments Used for the Classroom Observation Apart from the questionnaire survey, interview classroom observation scheme was conducted as an empirical part of the empirical study. The points that were taken into account on purpose to make classroom observation are as follows: 1. Size and condition of classroom 2. Medium of instruction 3. Time allotted for class 4. Observation teaching -learning activities in classroom according to 22 questions e) Sampling Plan for the Empirical Survey For my research I have planned to investigate 10 students through interview. For my questionnaire survey I have planned to observe 30 students. As time was limited I could only attend and collect data only from five classes. For the study, five teachers were interviewed. # V. Chapter Five: Data Analysis For the analysis the data were collected through questionnaire survey, interview, and classroom observation. The findings of the study include the interview of 10 students and questionnaire responses of 30 students, interview of two teachers and five classroom observations of the first year undergraduates in the department of English at JU. The interview sessions mainly focus on the targeted perspective that is to identify and analyze grammatical (articles, prepositions, auxiliaries and so on) and lexical (spelling etc.) errors in written English and phonological and grammatical errors in spoken English. The questionnaire was designed previously for targeted participants and classroom observation. The questionnaire was arranged in addition to the interview to elicit background or rationale behind the respondents' individual position o the selected issue. The subsequent part of this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section analyses and discusses the results in statistical measures and percentage based on the findings of the instruments for the students' questionnaire survey. The second section analyses and discusses the results in statistical measures and percentage based on the findings of the instruments of classroom observation. Finally, based on the interview questions the last section analyses and discusses the results of the detected errors in spoken and written English in statistical measures and percentage. The first part of the questionnaire deals with the personal details of the respondents to keep documentation for further information which will help to elicit background or rationale behind the respondents' individual position on the selected issue. However, different types of students have acted in response to this questionnaire. ii. Second part of the Questionnaire No. Questions Yes% No% iii. Discussions of the Findings Concerning the survey of students' questionnaire focusing on written and spoken English the first two questions try to investigate whether the students write and speak in the classroom. The answer is found from the question (1) where 56.7% students admit that they do not speak in the classroom. Because of this less involvement in speaking students might face difficulties while speaking as in question (14) it is seen that 40% students think their mother tongue interferes while speaking English. In item no. (3), 80% students express their views that they often commit errors in spoken and written English. There is an important issue in item no. 6 and 8. Here 80% students think that their language teacher does not engage and help them in all kind of speaking and writing activities and use their organs of articulation to produce different sounds of English. There are some students who like to follow their language teachers. Item no. 10 shows that 56.6% students try to follow their teachers in pronouncing a word or follow his/ her writing style. Only 30% students think that they transfer rules from their mother tongue (Bangla) to English. Students have an intention to write correctly but in reality, it is not possible for them in the present situation. Among the 30 students, 83.3% focus on grammatical accuracy while writing and speaking. Immediate correction of errors is preferred by 90% students in no. 16 and in 15, 40% students want their teachers to identify errors and correct them with explanations. Item no. 17 shows that 86.6% students think that they know a lot of rules of English but cannot express it properly through speaking and writing. In item no. 19 and 20, 80% students think that teaching techniques need to be improved and proper guidance and teaching techniques can help to improve their writing and speaking skills. The first part of the questionnaire deals with the detail information of the classroom to keep documentation for further information which will help to elicit background or rationale behind the respondents' individual positions of selected issues. However, five classes had been observed to examine the reliability of the responses to the other questionnaires prepared for teachers and students. ii. Second Part of the Instrument (Questionnaire) No. Questions Yes% No% iii. Analysis of the Responses As far as the classroom observation is concerned, the first question shows that 80% students think that their teachers always encourage them to write with correct grammatical structure and to speak in English with correct pronunciation. It is found that many students interact with the teachers. 18 students (60%) give the opinion that their errors are not tolerated in the class. The fourth item shows that 60% of the total number of students is interacting with themselves and with the teachers in English. The other 40% remain silent and when they are asked to speak they cannot do it correctly. Commonly the teacher does not become impatient when a student commits an error. On the other hand, item no. 6 shows that the teacher mostly provides proper feedback for the students. Almost all the students are afraid of class teacher and shy and anxious of committing errors in front of the other students. It is found in the question no. 15 that 90% students are afraid of class teacher and shy and anxious of committing errors in front of the other students. The teachers sometimes focus on the use of preposition and sometimes they make immediate correction of the errors with explanation. Almost all the students are afraid of class teacher and shy and anxious of committing errors in front of the other students (Question no. 15) No. 16 reveals the fact that half of the students are not attentive enough because they always like to sit at the last bench. The study shows that only 45% students show their problems to their teachers. Some students are afraid of showing their problems to their teachers (Question no. 17). The teachers have a sound knowledge of English language. The observation finds out that most of the teachers speak and write correct English. It also shows (no. 19) that most of the students do not make self corrections while writing. The number is 24 among 30 students and the percentage is 80% and 56.7% students in question no. 20 think that the teachers' pronunciations have local language's influence. The first part of the questionnaire deals with the personal details of the respondents to keep records for further information which will help to bring forth background or basis behind the respondents' individual position on the selected issue. Ten students of the first year of the department of English were chosen for the interview. Here, every student was interviewed personally at their free time. After coming to the end of every interview it has been noticed how many minutes did each student took. It was found that most of the interviewees took 7-8 minutes. # ii. Second Part of the Instruments The objective of this study is to identify errors of preposition, articles, auxiliaries and pronunciation in written and spoken English. These areas have been discussed in chapter three. In that chapter major areas of errors of prepositions, articles, auxiliaries and pronunciation in spoken and written English have been focused with concrete examples found in the data analysis of the recorded of English speech and written scripts of the students. In this chapter results of the Error analysis on grammatical and phonological errors in spoken and written English are presented. In the excerpts from the oral interaction and writing capability are used to indicate error and are used for missing elements in the utterances and writing. Here relevant reference is made to related finings from other error analysis studies on grammatical errors in written English due to a paucity of research on grammatical errors in spoken English. # a. Grammatical Analysis and Discussions (Speaking Part) The categorizations of grammatical errors of individual interviewee are shown in the table below. Though there are other errors in gender based pronoun, use of plural numbers, third person singular numbers, tense, use of empty subjects, word form, verb form, word stress and intonation, the study only focuses on some selected issues which are prepositions, articles, and auxiliary verbs. Table 5.1 shows the frequency of grammatical errors (articles, prepositions and auxiliary verbs) made by each respondent in the interview. Here out of the total identified 230 errors, the most frequent errors are preposition (92 errors) and the error analysis revealed that the highest frequency of preposition errors among the categories of detected grammatical errors (92 errors or 40% of 230). Secondly, out of the total identified 230 errors, the less frequent errors are article (71errors or 30.87 % of 230). Lastly, out of the total identified 230 errors, the lowest frequent errors are auxiliary verbs (67 errors or 29.13% of 230). # b. Preposition Preposition ranks the first among the grammatical errors made by the secondary level students in their spoken English (92 errors or 40%). The problem with prepositions is due to incorrect choice, addition of prepositions necessarily or omission of prepositions when necessary, illustrated as follows: i. Misinformation: Sitting on my bed from * outside of my bedroom window I can see there is a tree. ii. Addition: when I passed off my HSC exam, I just dreamt of in* this campus. iii. It is true ^ (about) him. In this way, a number of errors in the use of preposition have been identified. Most of the errors of preposition is found in the use of from, in, at, off, about, for, through, etc. the frequency of errors in the use of the above mentioned prepositions is shown in the table 5.2. c. Articles The errors of article rank the second place among the three grammatical errors made by the students in their spoken English (71 errors or 30.87%). The students either added articles unnecessarily or omitted them when they should be used but there are fewer instances of misinformation errors. It is illustrated as follows: ? Addition: To me, he is a* one friend. ? Omission: It is true that they are going to catch *black bird. ? Misinformation: Look, there is a* four birds in the field. Lightfoot's (1998) study of the usage of the English article system by Japanese second language learners, it was found that the most frequently occurring error type is omission and this tendency is likely to have been caused by direct interference from the article-less Japanese language. In this study, omission and addition of articles are equally frequent. The statistical presentation of the errors occurring in the use of article (a, an, the) is given in the table 5.3. From the table, it can be assumed that students are indifferent about the use of articles. Because, the less frequency of errors in the use of 'an' shows that most of the students know quite well about the use o f 'an' as it has some restricted rules. So, students pay much attention to the placement of 'an'. Meanwhile they regard 'the' and 'a' easier than 'an' and as a result indifferently place article 'the' and 'a' without following the specific rules. Hence, students commit errors by adding unnecessary articles or omitting necessary articles. After analyzing the errors in grammatical functions the study has compared the result of the errors detected from 10 students' interview and the results found from the questionnaire analysis. It is found that the students are aware of their weakness as well as the teachers know in which area their students are weak. However, 90% students and 100% teachers think that the students face difficulty in prepositions. Even, 25% students agreed that they use such prepositions of which they are not sure. Because of facing difficulties and acquiring a poor knowledge about prepositions most of the students commit errors in prepositions. The result shows that within the three grammatical errors the highest errors are found in prepositions (92 errors or 40% of 230 errors). Besides, the errors in articles and auxiliaries show the similarity with teachers' and students' judgments. From interview it has been found that there are 71 or 30.87% errors in articles and from questionnaire analysis I have found that 100% teachers and 82% students think that they commit errors in Articles. Though 50% teachers and 80% students think that they (students) know the structural differences between Bangla and English, in spoken English they (students) make 67 or 29.13% errors out of 230 errors. iii. Third Part of the Instruments The third part of the instruments of interview was prepared for analyzing pronunciation. In this part 48 words were arranged focusing on the probable phonological errors made by the L2 learners while speaking. Phonological aspect of language is focused on pronunciation in the paper. Hence, the interviewees were asked to pronounce the given 48 words which helped the study to identify the assumed errors regarding pronunciation made by the L2 learners. # Analysis and Discussions of Errors of Pronunciation While interviewing, it was noticed that the students tend to produce sounds which are a little native-like because they actually come to know from the teachers how to pronounce in the standard form (British or American accent). But they have some problems like producing sound like /f / and /v/ as aspirated voiced or voiceless bilabial plosives. Instead they produce sounds like /ph/ and /bh/. It implies their English sounds are like bilabial plosives instead of labio-dental Fourth Part of the Instruments The fourth part of the instruments of interview was prepared for analyzing errors in writing. In this part the 10 student respondents were asked to write a paragraph on "Why do You Want to Study in the Department of English at JU?" focusing on the probable grammatical (preposition, articles, auxiliary verbs, syntax) and lexical errors. It helped the study to identify a. Analysis and Discussions of Errors in Writing The ten students were asked to write a paragraph of about one page but some wrote more than one page. The topic of the paragraph was "Why Do You Want to Study in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University?" In the ten Scripts; there were 89 errors in total. The errors are shown script-wise in the following table: # Chapter Six: Recommendations This chapter gives some recommendations for developing the proficiency of L2 learners in written and spoken English on the basis of the findings of the present study. Some pedagogical recommendations can be given in order to reduce the number of errors committed by the students in their English, in particular, written and spoken English. These are discussed below. The first thing is that the teachers should often remind the students that they should think in the target language norms when they are using it (in Speaking or Writing). They should do so in order that they do not bring any feature of their mother tongue. The instructor or the teacher should explain the reason of the ungrammaticalness of some construction. The good thing would be that the teacher has a good command of the target language. In addition, s/he should have a working knowledge of the first/ native language of the students. Error analysis is associated with a rich and complex psycholinguistic view of the learner. In order to improve teaching, the teachers need to explore the learners' psychological process in language learning so that they can enhance their understanding of learners' errors. So, teachers should emphasize on four skills of language (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking) equally. They should advise their students to preserve in studying English. There will be a time when they will be well-exposed to the language through the various language skills. Only then through this process the possibility of committing errors can be minimized. Like the students, teachers should also speak in the target language as much as they can. Teachers should help the students in writing more creatively by providing them idea about different topics and various grammatical structures and vocabulary items. They should encourage the students to speak by giving some situations and helping them in carrying on interaction. Besides teachers should make constructive criticisms which would motivate the students to work with language. Over-consciousness (or what Krashen termed as "Monitor Over-users" in his Monitor Model theory/ hypothesis) on correctness hinders the learning process and flow of speaking and writing. This thought of correctness produces a kind of fear in the minds of the students. So, students should have an environment in which they can think freely. They have to be inspired by the teachers when they are writing something or when they are speaking. The teacher should be a close observer. While involving the students in group discussions, a writing session, or role playing the teacher should observe and later make corrections with explanations. The right attitude of the teacher is important for the students who are grappling with the complexities of English Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling. The language is difficult enough; it should not be made more difficult for them. The teacher should try to explain the rules, structures, or forms of the target language in the easiest way. The majority of the teachers of the department of English are non-native speakers. They should try to acquire native like competence as much as they can. It should be done in order that the students can follow them directly. Teachers should ensure the all-round language development of the students. They should not spend too much time on only one or two of language skills to the detriment of others. Teachers should allot extra time for their students to teach pronunciation by using phonemic chart, places of articulation, manners of articulations, forces of articulation, and figure of organs of speech. Besides, teachers should help the students in using the articulatory organs while pronouncing sounds. For writing, teachers should teach the students only those issues in which they are found to be weak. This would be done group wise. Teachers should follow and should advise the students to follow the IPA transcription of every word from dictionary of pronunciation. They should also advise them to practice memorizing and writing spelling of words. Students should be advised to listen to good English from whatever available source like Radio, Television, Native speakers, and good local speakers of the language and write down in accordance with the record. Practicing diction would enhance their listening and writing power. Teachers should encourage students to practice English (writing and speaking) both in classroom and in the dormitory. Some programs like preparing Wall Magazine, Essay Writing competition, Evaluative Writing (one student will check another's script) can be introduced for the betterment of their linguistic ability. There are times when teachers might be busy. During that time, the first year students can take help from the senior students. For active participation in both the class activities and outdoor activities, a kind of friendly environment is needed. Teachers should come forward to create such an environment for the students. As a result, the anxiety and fear of the students will be reduced. As students appear to be sensitive to fear of making mistakes, teachers should encourage the students to have the confidence in the skills. Furthermore, as a positive response to students' concern over the harsh manner of teachers' error correction, teachers' selection of error correction technique as Horwitz et. al (1986, p.131) recommended, should be based upon instructional philosophy and on reducing defensive reactions in students. Teachers need to impress upon the students the importance of including the reading habit which helps the students to learn the correct spelling as well as new sound and enrich their vocabulary and internalize acceptable and appropriate sentence construction. The teacher ought to provide an explanation with regard to the possible source or cause of error to bring about an awareness of what could be the potential contributory factor. The tasks practiced should be contextualized so that students get maximum exposure to the language. Selection of topics in the syllabus should include pronunciation learning and the syllabus should be graded from difficult to easy. Finally, there should be more and more research in this field so that teachers and students can get help from that. # VII. # Chapter Seven: Conclusion In the paper, the attitude of teachers' and students' towards error has been shown. It has been manifested by the paper that most of the students view errors positively and get sorts of feedback and motivate them to give more importance on productive skills rather than receptive skills. Moreover, there are some courses, for example, E 101 Communication Skills and E 307 English Language Teaching which are planned to involve the students in practical activities for effective communication. But the teachers are not either involving the students in writing and speaking activities or giving any type of hints of effective communication. As a result many students remain less proficient in these productive skills both grammatically and phonologically. The findings show that the students are committing errors frequently in prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs and pronunciations. The errors of articles, prepositions and auxiliary verbs are made due to the less involvement in writing and speaking activities and transferring rules from L1 to TL. On the other hand, the errors in pronunciation are made because of a great distance between English and Bangla sounds. Moreover, teachers are found to be indifferent towards the importance of pronunciation teaching as a very few instructions are given in the syllabus to teach students pronunciation. In this way this paper tries to examine the problems that secondary level students of Bangladesh face while speaking in English. In addition, it also finds out the effective remedial measures and feedback techniques for developing speaking skill with correct pronunciation. If the teachers of our country have a good grasp of the techniques, they can help students to learn to speak in English accurately. The present syllabus of the department of English at JU is quite fine. If this syllabus can work more practically, the errors of writing and speaking can be reduced. More effective components have to be incorporated in the materials, classroom activities and testing tools to make the L2 learners (in this case the students of the department) most proficient in English so that they can use it properly in their future life. ![The methods of data collection employed for the study are: a) Students' Questionnaire Survey b) Classroom Observation c) Students' Interview (writing a paragraph and pronouncing words and sentences) d) Teachers' Interview In order to carry out these methods of data collection properly I have tried to be careful in designing and administrating the instruments of my research. d) Instruments Used for the Study The instruments that have been used in this study are: 1. Questionnaire for the students 2. Interview of the students (writing a paragraph and pronouncing words and sentences) 3. Interview of the Teachers 4. A Classroom-observation Scheme i. An Account of the Instruments for the Students' Questionnaire Survey and Interview](image-2.png "") 5IntervieweeUse of ArticleUse of PrepositionUse of AuxiliaryTotal Error of EachIndividualSpeaker 11371939Speaker 21291435Speaker 359216Speaker 466315Speaker 555313Speaker 666517Speaker 75161021Speaker 8310316Speaker 9910322Speaker 10714526Total719267230 52 : Number of Errors in PrepositionPrepositionTotal error (s)%On1516.3%Of1819.6%For1112%About88.7%With99.8%Through22.2%Back33.3%By88.7%In1819.6%Total92100% 53 : Number of Errors in ArticleArticle (s)Total Errors%A3245.1%An1521.1%The2433.8%Total71100% 54 : Number of Errors in auxiliary VerbsAuxiliary VerbsTotal errors%Be (am/is/are/was/were)2740.3%Do (do/does/did)1319.4%Have (have/has/had)1116.42%Modal913.43% 55 : Errors of Pronunciation NoScript No.No. of Errors0160280311047057061007140811098107Total89In these 89 errors there are errors of Pronoun,Contraction, Tense, Subject-Verb Agreement, andPreposition, Article, Auxiliary verb, Principal verb,Number. These have been shown in the table below:Punctuation,Spelling,Capitalization,Lexical,Table 5. 7 : Errors of Different IssuesSerial No.Category of ErrorNumber of Error/s1Pronoun42Preposition83Article114Auxiliary verb65Principal verb66Punctuation37Spelling118Capitalization39Lexical610Contraction511Tense712Subject-Verb6Agreement13Number714Syntactic5Total89VI. © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) Year 2015An Investigation into the Errors Committed by First Year under Graduates in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University Year 2015An Investigation into the Errors Committed by First Year under Graduates in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) -9 Year 2015 An Investigation into the Errors Committed by First Year under Graduates in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University © 2015 Global Journals Inc. (US) - ## Appendix-1 Instruments for Students' Questionnaire Survey This questionnaire is designed for examining the present state of common errors especially errors of pronunciation, articles, spelling, auxiliaries, prepositions, and syntax in written and spoken English committed by the first year undergraduates in the department of English at JU. In addition, it also aims to look into the causes and remedies of those errors. Your co-operation is essential for the study and will be highly valued. All information will be kept confidential and used only for the purpose of this study. Section 01: Personal Details * English Speech Rhythm and Foreign Learner. The Hauge: Mauton CAdams 1979 * L1 Influence on the Spoken English Proficiency of Bengali Speakers SMAriful December 2004 * CBrumfit Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching: the Roles of Fluency and Accuracy Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1984 * Idosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis SPCorder IRAL 9 2 1971 * Introducing Applied Linguistics. England: The Penguin Group SPCorder 1973 * The Significance of Learners' Errors SPCorder 1967 5 * Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers ADoff 1988 The Cambridge University Press Cambridge * On Sources of Errors in Foreign Language Learning LDuskova IRAL 7 1969 * The Common Mistakes in English Usage TBEliott 1982 McGraw-Hill New York * Rules and Instances in Foreign Language Learning: Interactions of Explicit & Implicit Knowledge NEllis 1991 North Wales Bangor * Understanding Second Language Acquisition REllis 1985 Oxford University Press 295 * The Study of Second Language Acquisition REllis 1994 Oxford University Press 47 New York * Common Errors in Language Learning HVGeorge 1972 Rowley: Massachusetts * Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (2 nd ) ASHornby 1975 Oxford University Press London * The Handbook of World Englishes CLKachru & Nelson 1992 Malden, MA. Blackwell * A Communicative Grammar of English GLeech JSvartvik 1994 Longman Singapore Pubilisher Singapore nd ed * Japanese Second Language Learner and English Article System: A Study in error Analysis ARLightfoot 1998. September 17. 2010 Retrieved * Introduction to English Language Study WLittlewood 1981. 2006 Friends Book Corner Cambridge; Dhaka Communicative Language Teaching * The Contribution of Error Analysis to Second/ Foreign Language (SL/Fl) Learning and Teaching MManiruzzaman 2003 18 Harvest Journal of Jahangirnagar University * The Effects of Classroom Interaction Patterns and the Students' Characteristics on the Acquisition of FMcdonald MStone AYates 1977 Proficiency in English as A Second Language * Educational Testing Service NJPrinceton * Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers DNunan 1991 Prentice Hall New York * JCRichards TSRodgers The Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2001 nd ed. * Error Analysis and Second Language Strategies JCRichards Language Sciences 17 1971October * Understanding Second and Foreign Language Learning: Issues and Approaches JCRichards 1978 Rowleys, Mass; Newbury House * The Effect of Question Preview in Comprehension Test JSherman Language Teaching 14 1997 * Styles of Learning among American Indians: An Outline for Research PSteven 1969. 1996 714 37 Washington Two Ways of Looking at error Analysis * Speaking English: Speech Practice Materials for Intermediate and Advanced Learners JWright 1973 Oxford University Press London of the Teacher: 2. Name of the Course: 3. Total Students * StudentsPresent * Section 02: Practice of Error-Identification in Spoken and Written English TimeDate Period